Interference in a cellular communications system

A method of, and apparatus for, processing interference in a cellular communications system. The method includes the steps of determining a quality value per burst; identifying those bursts for which the quality value is below a predetermined threshold; determining a pattern of the identified bursts in terms of transmission frequency and time; calculating respective predicted patterns based on respective hopping determination parameters of other cells and of the given cell; comparing the determined pattern of the identified bursts with the predicted patterns; and responsive thereto predicting the hopping determination parameters of whichever interfering cell produced the determined pattern of the identified bursts by interfering with the given cell. Further possibilities include comparing the given cell with the interfering cell and identifying predicted interfering timeslots. Further interference can be reduced by not transmitting bursts during some or all of the predicted interfering timeslots. Interference produced by overlapping parts of bursts of unsynchronised timeslots can be incorporated.